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Overnight Trips are a Pivotal Experience for Montessori Elementary and Adolescent Students

Overnight Trips are a Pivotal Experience for Montessori Elementary and Adolescent Students

Overnight trips are an important component of our Montessori Elementary and Adolescent Programs, offering an immersive learning experience that transcends the boundaries of traditional classroom settings. For Elementary and Adolescent students, these excursions are transformative journeys that foster independence, help to build practical outdoor and cultural skills, and nurturing a sense of community.

Third Year Overnight Trip

Overnight trips begin in Lower Elementary for the Third Year Overnight. Third grade students participate in an overnight campout on our campus as part of their work to build independence and bond with their community.

Away from the familiar surroundings of home and school, children learn to rely on themselves and each other. They take responsibility for packing their bags, setting up camp, and contributing to group activities. Every task empowers them to develop self-reliance and problem-solving skills. As they conquer challenges outside their comfort zone, their confidence soars, laying the foundation for the autonomy and independence they will continue to utilize throughout their Montessori experience and beyond.

Upper Elementary Camping Trips

Upper Elementary students go on two trips throughout the year. This year, the students went to Echo Hill Outdoor School in the fall and Assateague Island in the spring. Students also have the opportunity to participate in Montessori Model UN (MMUN), culminating with a four day trip to the MMUN Conference in New York. 

These trips are opportunities for the students to get to know one another and build strong relationships with their peers and with the adults in their classroom. During these trips, the students practice their Practical Life skills including planning meals, packing outdoor equipment, and working together to plan activities. They also learn and implement important outdoor skills such as building fires and reading maps.

These skills deepen their connection to the natural world and have the potential to instill a profound sense of stewardship towards the environment. Through experiential learning, students understand the importance of sustainability and conservation, becoming responsible global citizens in the process.

Adolescent Odyssey Trips

Our Adolescents take two multi-night trips called Odysseys at the beginning and end of the school year. In addition, they go on+ a biennial Dual Language Capstone Trip to a Spanish-speaking country.

These trips place the adolescents in direct contact with the workings of the world in a holistic experience away from home and familiar communities. The adolescents live together, plan and cook meals together, and explore places connected to our science, humanities, and Spanish studies.

In the fall, the Adolescents traveled to East Hill Farm in New Hampshire , they ventured to Merida, Mexico for their Dual Language trip in February, and now they are on Odyssey at New Germany State Park in Western Maryland. The specific Odyssey destinations change from year to year depending on the needs and interests of the community.

These overnight trips foster a sense of camaraderie among students, strengthening the bonds of their community. Living in close quarters, they learn to communicate effectively, resolve conflicts, and appreciate diverse perspectives.

 

Through these immersive overnight experiences, we hope to offer our students dynamic views of cultures, the natural environment, and the greater world.

 

Children Raise and Observe Wood Frogs

Children Raise and Observe Wood Frogs

Several of our classrooms have been raising wood frog eggs into tadpoles and frogs. In early March, Adolescent Guide and naturalist Sylvia Glassco generously brought in wood frog eggs from her property. The frogs were carefully cared for in tanks for the children to learn and observe.

Throughout the months, the children carefully observed the growth and metamorphosis of the tadpoles, with some children keeping a written journal. When the frogs were fully grown in May, they were safely released back into the ecosystem where they were initially found.

We love this opportunity for up close observation of our natural world.

 

Earth Day Celebrations at Greenspring

Earth Day Celebrations at Greenspring

As part of our Allegiance to Nature at Greenspring Montessori School, our faculty and staff organized a special Earth Day event for our children and families. Our Toddler, Children’s House, Elementary, and Adolescent classes took on various projects around our campus including planting stations, nature-based story walks, and nature scavenger hunts. Many classes also worked to restore natural spaces on campus and make improvements to their outdoor environments. In addition, there are many beautiful books on display in the library on Earth Day, Spring, Gardening, and more! 

After school it began to rain, but many families still joined in to help spruce up the campus grounds. We would like to extend a special thanks to all of our families who volunteered to help make this event a success! If you would like to support any of our current outdoor projects by volunteering or donating supplies, please reach out to us here. 

It was beautiful to see everyone coming together for this purposeful community event! Take a look below to see photos and more details about the projects at each level.

Toddlers

Our Toddlers visited the planting station in the morning to prepare small seedlings to bring home. They also worked together to spruce up their outdoor environments and plant zinnias in the garden bed outside of Monocacy House.

Children’s House

In preparation for Earth Day, our Children’s House classrooms hosted a week of waste-free lunches. The Children’s House Guides read stories about how waste impacts the environment and what we can do to help. The students then took a closer look at the waste the classes generated during a typical lunch. Together they talked about how waste impacts people, animals, and our environment. In addition to their waste-free lunch efforts, the children also weighed their compost collectively to see how they are helping to remove waste from landfills just by the small step we each take when we compost our food scraps.

Our Children’s House team was inspired to take on this initiative after learning more about the Roots & Shoots Program by Jane Goodall. To learn more about our Children’s House Roots & Shoots lessons, please click here.

“People are so overwhelmed by the magnitude of our folly that they feel helpless. They sink into apathy and despair, lose hope, and so do nothing. We must find ways to help people understand that each one of us has a role to play, no matter how small. Every day we make some impact on the planet.  And the cumulative effect of millions of small ethical actions will truly make a difference.”

– Jane Goodall, The Book of Hope

Elementary & Adolescents

Our Elementary children sowed vegetable and flower seeds in their outdoor gardens.They are also preparing to extend their garden area in order to grow wine plants including gourds, pumpkins, squash, and watermelon.

Our Adolescents tended to the rain garden they designed and planted on campus last spring, mending the deer fencing, wedding, and adding new plants.

Families

We also celebrated Earth Day with our families at our Spring Grounds Day. 37 volunteers came out to give back to our school by helping to beautify and maintain the Greenspring campus. Parents, grandparents, and children helped with everything from weeding and planting to window washing and fence staining. Thank you to everyone who came out to join us!

Thank you for your support as we celebrate Earth Day and help inspire the future generation of stewards for our planet. 

“Hope is contagious Your actions inspire others.”

– Jane Goodall

Celebration of Writers in our Elementary Program

Celebration of Writers in our Elementary Program

This spring our Elementary classrooms each hosted a Celebration of Writers where students read their original works to family and friends. This year we had works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and more!  The students worked very diligently to generate, revise, and complete their own original works of writing that they were eager to share with family and friends. Our Elementary students have worked diligently on their public speaking skills as well, practicing reading their original works to several classmates. 

Our Celebration of Writers is an opportunity for the Elementary students to feel a sense of valorization – that they are capable of creating compelling stories and they have unique gifts to offer their community. Valorization is an important piece of the Montessori philosophy that can support the child’s confidence, initiative, and love of learning.

Celebration of Writers Update
By Harelle, 3rd grade Greenspring writer

Our Celebration of Writers began at 2 o’clock on the 12th of April, 2024. We had been writing and editing with Writers’ Workshop Guide John Pierce since October 2023. Mr. John is an amazing Outdoor Environment teacher and we all love him (he’s a really good teacher).  

A Celebration of Writers is when each Elementary class chooses a date, invites the parents, and presents to the parents. The event is held in honor of Writers’ Workshop and our writing skills getting better (including spelling and handwriting), and starting to write longer, more juicy detailed stories. We can impress you with our skills. For example, if you went to your child’s Celebration of Writers expecting to hear your child read a story about cats that isn’t very long and they surprise you by reading a story that is 5 pages long and about detectives! Last but not least, each class ends with a special song or poem made with Mr. John with the tune to a song. We hope you enjoyed this update!

Thank you to all who joined us in celebrating the works and accomplishments of our Elementary writers!

Adolescents Travel to Merida, Mexico for Spanish Language Capstone Trip

Adolescents Travel to Merida, Mexico for Spanish Language Capstone Trip

In March, our Adolescent students ventured to Mérida in the Yucatán region of Mexico for a seven day Spanish immersion trip. The goal of the capstone trip was for our Adolescents to connect with our sister school – Lancaster Montessori – while having a cultural immersion experience. Throughout the week, the adolescents were responsible for purchasing groceries and preparing meals together and they enjoyed many team-building activities and cultural experiences. Some of the highlights of the trip included:

Local Foods and Culture

We had the chance to visit the local market in the heart of downtown Mérida for an opportunity to explore the city with all of our senses. We saw how vendors make fresh tortillas and the many different local fruits that Yucatán has to offer. During the week, the students tried marquesitas, a typical sweet treat from Yucatan that they loved. We also visited Dulceria y Sorbeteria Colon, an ice cream shop that has been open since 1907, where some of the students tried the mamey ice cream, made from a local fruit. They also enjoyed sampling fresh local mangoes and authentic Mexican tacos.

The Natural Environment

The adolescents visited Progreso Beach where they walked around the malecon (boardwalk) and they saw the longest pier in the world – it’s 26,309 ft long! They also visited several cenotes throughout the trip including cenote Ik Kil, one of the most beautiful cenotes in Yucatán. Some of the students were feeling adventurous and jumped 14ft high in the cenote!

Exploring the City

The students rented bicycles and ventured down Paseo de Montejo – the main avenue. It was so beautiful to get to know the city while biking!

History

We visited Chichen Itza, deemed one of the new seven wonders of the world. In the Mayan language, Chichen Itza means, “At the brim of the well where the Wise Men of the Water Live”. While there, we saw El Castillo – the most astonishing Mayan Ruin. I got to be their private guide and students got souvenirs for family members. 

We also went to Dondé Cookie Factory for a tour and to learn more about how it started in 1905. The students got to go inside the factory and see the full process of how to make the different cookies. We had a wonderful time getting to see how cookies were made and we all left with many treats.

Visiting Lancaster Montessori School

The Adolescents were eager to meet their peers from our Sister School in Mérida at Lancaster Montessori. The Lancaster students greeted us right from the door and made sure our students were feeling comfortable. Some of the students took private English lessons to prepare for our visit, a lot of students spoke conversational English and had the chance to connect with us. The adolescents worked to immerse themselves in conversation, moving back and forth between both Spanish and English.  We all cooked chilaquiles together to get to know one another.

After cooking, the students joined together for a creative math lesson. They were tasked with making a robot that had specific measurements, a name, and a purpose in life. They had very creative ideas! At the end of the day, they presented their robots and their goals to the whole Adolescent Community at Lancaster Montessori. 

The trip to Merida was a very wonderful experience – the bond that our adolescents have is extremely special and it was so wonderful to see how they were supporting each other in every step of the trip.

Upper Elementary Students Represent Kenya and Congo-Brazzaville at Model United Nations

Upper Elementary Students Represent Kenya and Congo-Brazzaville at Model United Nations

Upper Elementary students at Greenspring Montessori School traveled to New York in February to represent Kenya and Congo-Brazzaville at the Montessori Model United Nations Conference. The students have been researching and preparing speeches throughout the school year on topics such as promoting international cooperation on peaceful uses of international security, disaster risk reduction, combating desertification, empowering youth in inclusive and sustainable food systems, and the rights of indigenous peoples.
 
 
The students did extensive research on their topic and wrote position papers outlining suggestions to address these issues from the viewpoint of their country. From there they used key points of the paper to draft speeches. These speeches were delivered at the MMUN Conference to delegates from other schools who were researching the same topics. Suggestions were debated and discussed in the committees until they were able to draft resolutions to gain consensus.
Two members of our group were elected by their committee to speak at the closing ceremony. The entire group consisted of more than 1,600 people: delegates, coordinators, chaperones, and Bureau members, so it was quite a large crowd to address.
 
The students also had an opportunity to visit the United Nations building, where they got to sit in the General Assembly room in the very place where UN Ambassadors listen to speeches, debate, and ultimately vote on resolutions impacting our entire world.

We are so grateful that our Upper Elementary students have the opportunity to engage in this meaningful work learning conflict resolution and problem-solving skills with children around the globe.